Claiming maintenance from two men lands woman in deep trouble

Harare woman was convicted for claiming maintenance from two men and registering her daughter’s birth certificate using two different names.

Stella Kwanisai, 31, pleaded guilty to the charges when she appeared before Harare magistrate Babra Mateko on Saturday.

She will be sentenced on Monday. Kwanisai is facing charges of falsifying information for the purpose of the registration of a birth certificate of her child.

She was nabbed after her ex-husband, Kenias Chizema, got wind to the effect that she was claiming maintenance from another man.

Before that, Kwanisai had dragged Chizema to court on allegations of defaulting maintenance. Chizema was in arrears of $3 000.

According to the state, sometime in 2007 Kwanisai told Chizema that she was pregnant with his child and on March 22 2008 she gave birth to a baby girl. On May 28 that same year, Kwanisai registered the baby as Precious Chizema and claimed Kenias Chizema is the father of the baby.

At the end of 2008 Kwanisai registered the baby as Ruvimbo Precious Nyaude and listed one Solver Nyaude as the father of the baby. In June 2013, Kwanisai claimed child maintenance from Chizema and again in the same month Kwanisai phoned Nyaude asking him why he was not paying child maintenance fees.

Chizema got hold of the scam and reported the matter to the police.

The police enquired from the ministry of home affairs where it was discovered that the child had two birth certificates with different men as the fathers of the baby. Hatizivo Chatikobo appeared for the State.